Semi Truck, Major Spill: Why We Love Food Accidents on the Road

From oranges to pizzas to slow-oozing chocolate, we can’t get enough of all the comedy opportunities when a food-hauling semi truck tips over.

When unique things take place on highways, there’s already a built-in audience. It’s like a front-row seat to something amazing and possibly super disturbing happening. This visual gamble makes for pure entertainment regardless. What else do you have to do while you’re sitting in bumper-to- bumper traffic?

The Problem in Poland

Highway drivers in Poland this last week were in for a literal treat as a tanker carrying 12 tons of oozing liquid chocolate tipped over like Willy Wonka was playing a trick on everyone. Food blog Eater took note of this and did a deep dive into why people go gaga when something like this happens. Even though on the surface it’s a bit tragic and you want to make sure everyone is okay, it’s an absolute comic goldmine for the age of memes and social media.

The New York Times got in on the action with a headline that read, “Chocolate Spills, and Brown Goo Closes a Polish Highway,” Enca wrote, “Choc-a- block traffic after liquid-chocolate tanker spill in Poland,” and an Arizona radio station declared, “Willy Wonka is gonna be pissed.” Come on, that’s pretty clever. This prompted some other examples of highway hiccups involving food and semi trucks, naturally.

Tasty Trip-ups

This past March, a truck in Southern California spilled a ton—literally—of French fries across a highway and a semi in Florida tipped 60,000 pounds of beer on the road, making it the biggest party foul in the history of mankind. But at the meat of the issue (so many food puns keep popping up) is the fact that these are still crashes that can cause harm. But, really, should we feel guilty about laughing or coming up with quippy quips?

There’s really not a chocolate-filled semi truck-sized amount of information on this subject, but statistics do show that only 4 percent of heavy trucks involved in fatal accidents involve food of some kind. The reason why they get so much attention is because they’re so unique in nature and are totally different than the typical fender-benders we see on the road.

So, the next time you hear about a slow-moving spill of molasses on the road or traffic being squeezed to a halt because a tanker of oranges tipped over, don’t feel too terribly bad. And be sure to send us some appropriately funny memes related to food transportation spills.